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Sabres' Housley keeps his promise of a tough practice

Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - It’s rare that coaches bag skate their players anymore because it’s a total waste of valuable practice time. For 45 minutes on Sunday, Phil Housley skated his team hard, but it was drills done with pucks. It was a definite punishment for the lack of effort shown Saturday against Dallas.

After practice, Housley learned of the death of his good friend Jim Johannson from USA Hockey. Understandably, Housley was too distraught to speak to the media.

Jacob Josefson and Nate Beaulieu both returned to practice and Housley totally shuffled the deck.

Nolan Rodrigues Baptiste

Kane Larsson Pominville

Girgensons Eichel Okposo

Wilson O’Reilly Reinhart

Pouliot Josefson

Scandella Ristolainen

Gorges Nelson

Beaulieu Antipin

McCabe Falk

Jack Eichel was not being difficult at all after practice, but his answers were very short because he just doesn’t know what to say anymore. The frustration in the players that do care is boiling over with no end in sight. Eichel said, “Everything has to be better, 7-1 at home is probably not very good, so I’d say everything.” Eichel added, “No excuses, I’m being a broken record, we’ve had this conversation a few times this year. You know what, I don’t know what to say.”

At the end of the interview Eichel did say, “We’re 48 games in and we haven’t found the consistency, so it starts with one game, right? It’s all you can really focus on and I look forward to playing, so I’m excited about the game, it’s an opportunity.

“Does it suck? Yes, we have 11 wins this year, it’s pretty embarrassing, we all know what it is.”

The Sabres left right after practice for Calgary. They play the Flames on Monday and Edmonton on Tuesday.